“Yes and no.” Alarea grinned. “Technically we could be called police, though it's really not what you're thinking.”

“What do you mean?” He asked, confused. The situation itself was already confusing, let alone the fact that she kept speaking around the subject.

She pulled a badge out of her pocket, a small gold and silver emblem with the words Bulwark writing across its face before tucking it quickly back inside.

“What's that?” He asked with a straight face. It looked fancy, that was for sure, expensive too. But he didn’t recognize the emblem or the word written overtop.

“Ha, a proper country bumpkin.” Mark laughed from across the table, the two other men joining in. Issac frowned. Clearly he was missing something, but he just couldn’t figure out what.

“Now now Mark, play nice.” She spoke with a soft voice, however the three men instantly stopped their laughing, and Issac could swear he saw them break out into a cold sweat. She turned her attention back to him. “We work for an organisation called Bulwark. Ever heard of it?”

“Can say I have.” He answered honestly.

“Then we’re doing our job correctly then. Though most people in the military already know who we are.”

“The military?” He asked surprised. “So you're not with the PDF?”

“No. Bulwark is a branch of the military, though we have a large amount of autonomy so we are often just classified as a separate entity.”

“But what does the military want with me?” He was confused. This was completely out of left field. If he was going to be arrested on charges of deserting, wouldn’t a PDF court be responsible?

“Think of it as scouting.” Alarea began. “I’ve had my eye on you since we met last, and it's not like the PDF is going to have much use of you after they’ve finished mopping up the last bug remnants on the planet.”

“Scouting? Me? Im no one special, just some random private.” He said dejectedly. His self worth had been in the dumps lately, not that it had ever been very high to begin with.

“I tend to disagree. You have the one thing we can't train, intuition. Everything else can be handled in bootcamp.” She dismissed his concerns with a wave of her hand. “Put some thought into joining us. We’ll be here until the end of the week.”

Issac kept his head down. While before he might have jumped at the chance to join the military, and venture off into far off solar systems and planets, after just one day of combat against an alien race his confidence was completely gone. Though one thing Alarea said did catch his attention.

“Last met? When did we meet?”

“Hmm?” She tapped her chin. “Why don't you figure that one out yourself? If you do, I'll see about letting you deliver that message of yours.”

With that she stood, the men on the other side of the table standing as well, as well as six other people from around the sparse mess hall. Issac had not been paying attention to his surroundings in the slightest, not noticing at all that all his fellow soldiers had already vacated, leaving behind only these ten strangely dressed military personnel.

“Don't be a stranger.” Alarea walked out of the mess hall after leaving her final words, the nine other military men falling in behind her, leaving Issac alone with his thoughts.

“What the hell even was that?” Issac thought to himself as he sat there alone. “It doesn't make any sense… They knew who I am? I’ve met her before? When? How? I don’t know anyone from the military. The only people I could think of were those soldiers in power armour..”

Issac’s eyes widened, the realisation hitting him hard. It took some time to connect the dots of how he recognised the womens voice. When he had met her in that trench it had been muffled and augmented by the full faced mask she was wearing with her power armour. It wasn’t a large change, but enough for him not to immediately recognise it.

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“So that was those guys then?” He started thinking. “The numbers fit, I guess. Ten people in power armour, and ten people here. And it would explain their high ranks, soldiers that are given access to suits that expensive are just one step away from being mech pilots.”

He would know, almost every young aspirational child did. Becoming a mech pilot was the dream of almost everyone when they were younger, but very few made the cut. To even be accepted into a training academy one had to have already been through extensive and often very specialised training, not something someone like him on such a barren planet on the edge of Bastion could even dream of affording.

“But that leaves one question.” He pulled up his comm unit attached around his wrist. “What the hell is Bulwark?”

He went to search the net for answers, however his comm unit was having trouble connecting to the internet.

“Oh come on.” He gave it a light jab with his hand, expecting the force to magically make the delicate electronics within spur to life. It seemed to only exacerbate the issues however, as a glitch effect quickly took over the screen, before forming into a set of words.

[No Cheating]

“What the fuck!” Issac jumped to his feet, before realising he was seated on a bench and not a chair, and fell over the back of it when it failed to move with his body, slamming hard into the polished concrete floors. “Urghh…”

He groaned as he pushed himself back up, extremely glad that the mess hall was completely empty and that no one had seen his embarrassing display. If they did he probably would have wished for the swarm to come back, if only to take him away from the embarrassment.

He looked back down at his comm unit, the words having already disappeared, however the message it left still lingered, or rather, the implication. “Whoever this Bulwark is that Alarea is a part of has enough clearance to access my PDF issued comm unit.”

He began to mull over his thoughts as he made his way out of the mess hall and back towards his new unit's barracks. He was stationed, much to his relief, at the command centre, letting him enjoy the more permanent facilities far away from the frontlines.

He made a beeline straight towards his commander's office, though this time not to ask for time off. He racked his hand against the door before stepping back and waiting.

“Come in.” A few minutes later a voice rang out from behind the door before Issac pulled it open and stepped inside. He flashed the man a salute, or at least his best attempt at one before standing at attention. The man behind the small desk in the even smaller office sighed, rubbing the bridge of his nose before grabbing his third cup of coffee this morning. “Ahh, private Issac. Asking two times in one day now huh?”

The small office was crammed full of documents, officers towards the back of the line taking up more of the administrative tasks for those further up, letting those on the front focus on waging war. It wasn’t the most fun in Major Gleans opinion, but it beat fighting to the death against overgrown bugs any day.

“Look kid, I would if I could.” Glean sighed, his baggy eyes barely open. “But we are facing a huge manpower issue right now considering the attack a few days ago. I can hardly let you go right now.”

“Sir, I had an unrelated question than that, sir.”

“Oh?” He looked up, intrigued, but also relieved. “Go ahead private.”

“Sir, I was wondering if the word, Bulwark, means anything to you.”

“Bulwark huh?” He leaned back in his seat, downing the styrofoam cup of coffee before attempting to throw it into a trash can in the corner of his office, only for it to end up together with a small pile to the side. “That's a big name. What’s your curiosity about it?”

“Just curious is all.” He lied, though it was a small enough white lie that he didn’t think it mattered. “I heard some people mention the name but I’ve never heard of it before.”

“I'm surprised you’ve never heard of them before. But then again you were just in highschool last month so I guess it makes sense.” He gave a light smile, enjoying the brief respite where he didn’t have to work, or talk about work. “They’re military intelligence.”

“Military intelligence?” Issac patriotic back. “Like spies?”

The major laughed at his childish response, but didn’t fault him for it. “Kinda. It’s a bit more complicated than that, but I don’t really know what their internal situation looks like.” He shook his head. “But i'm sure some of their agents are spies.”

“Cool.” He couldn’t help but exclaim, images of him being some secret agent flashing through his mind before he shook them away and returned his attention back to the real world. “Thanks for the information sir.”

“Ha, no worries.” The Major laughed, before his eyes saw the workload still piled high on his desk and sighed again. “If that's all private, I need to return to this.”

“Yes sir, thank you sir.” He gave another quick salute before making his way out. The short meeting had given him a lot to think about.

(/)

“Is there any point in all this?” Jessica asked her captain, Alarea as the two stood in a small control room, various monitors before them showing a view from cameras around the PDF base. “You could have just told him upfront.”

“That's true.” Alarea responded while watching the recording of Issac meeting with Major Gleans. Micro cameras were child's play for them. Though she was sure the PDF wouldn’t be happy if they found out they had scattered them around, even if they did there wasn’t much they could do about it. “But we have until the end of the week before Trinity leaves for the Bastion system. Might as well have some fun.”

Jessica merely rolled her eyes at her statement. Her captain was always a bit eccentric, not that she would ever express that opinion aloud. But still, she found some amusement being on this side of the camera, having been recruited by Alarea in much the same way as the young Issac here. She was sure he would forgive her for enjoying it, when it came time for him to be in her position.

“Any luck finding out what's on that later he’s carrying with him?”

“I could hazard a guess as to the nature of the message, given the situations surrounding it. But its exact contents, no.”

“Are you sure it's okay to let him deliver it though?” Jessica turned away from the monitors to face Alarea. “For a kid so young to have to deliver someone's final words. It might be too much for him.”

“I'm not so sure.” Alarea admitted, something that caught Jessica off guard. The captain was always completely sure in everything she did, this change was not something she was used to. “But what I am sure about is he wont agree to come with us unless he can do this himself. I really don’t have much choice in the matter.”